| Sasak | |
|---|---|
| Sasaknese | |
| Base Sasaq ᬪᬵᬲᬵᬲᬓ᭄ᬱᬓ᭄ | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈbasə ˈsasak] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Lombok |
| Ethnicity | Sasak Bayanese [id] |
Native speakers | 2.7 million (2010)[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Latin script (Sasak Latin alphabet)[4] Sasak script (a modification of theBalinese script)[5] | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sas |
| ISO 639-3 | sas |
| Glottolog | sasa1249 |
| ELP | Sasak |
 | |
 Linguistic map ofLombok, based on 1981 data. Areas with Sasak speakers are shown in green, andBalinese speakers in red. | |
TheSasak language (/ˈsɑːsɑːk/SAH-sahk;Base Sasaq,IPA:[ˈbasə ˈsasak],Sasak script: ᬪᬵᬲᬵᬲᬓ᭄ᬱᬓ᭄;Indonesian:Bahasa Sasak[baˈha.sa ˈsasak]) orSasaknese is spoken by theSasak ethnic group, which make up the majority of the population ofLombok, an island in theWest Nusa Tenggara province ofIndonesia. It is closely related to theBalinese andSumbawa languages spoken on adjacent islands, and is part of theAustronesian language family. Sasak has no official status; the national language,Indonesian, is the official and literary language in areas where Sasak is spoken.
Some of its dialects, which correspond to regions of Lombok, have a lowmutual intelligibility. Sasak has a system of speech levels in which different words are used depending on the social level of the addressee relative to the speaker, similar to neighbouringJavanese andBalinese.
Not widely read or written today, Sasak is used in traditional texts written on driedlontar leaves and read on ceremonial occasions. Traditionally, Sasak'swriting system is nearly identical toBalinese script.
Sasak is spoken by theSasak people on the island of Lombok inWest Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, which is located between the island ofBali (on the west) andSumbawa (on the east). Its speakers numbered about 2.7 million in 2010, roughly 85 percent of Lombok's population.[1] Sasak is used in families and villages, but has no formal status. The national language,Indonesian, is the language of education, government, literacy and inter-ethnic communication.[6] The Sasak are not the only ethnic group in Lombok; about 300,000Balinese people live primarily in the western part of the island and nearMataram, the provincial capital ofWest Nusa Tenggara.[7] In urban areas with more ethnic diversity there is some language shift towards Indonesian, mainly in the forms ofcode-switching andmixing rather than an abandoning of Sasak.[6]
Austronesian linguistK. Alexander Adelaar classified Sasak as one of theMalayo-Sumbawan languages group (a group he first identified) of thewestern Malayo-Polynesian family in a 2005 paper.[8][9] Sasak's closest sister language isSumbawa and, withBalinese, they form theBalinese-Sasak-Sumbawa (BSS) subgroup.[8] BSS,Malayic (which includesMalay,Indonesian andMinangkabau) andChamic (which includesAcehnese) form one branch of the Malayo-Sumbawan group.[9][8] The two other branches areSundanese andMadurese.[9] This classification putsJavanese, previously thought to belong to the same group, outside the Malayo-Sumbawan group in a different branch of the western Malayo-Polynesian family.[9]
The Malayo-Sumbawan proposal, however, is rejected byBlust (2010) and Smith (2017), who included the BSS languages in the putative "Western Indonesian" subgroup, alongside Javanese, Madurese, Sundanese,Lampung,Greater Barito andGreater North Borneo languages.[10][11]
Kawi, a literary language based onOld Javanese, has significantly influenced Sasak.[12] It is used in Sasak puppet theatre, poetry and somelontar-based texts, sometimes mixed with Sasak.[12][13] Kawi is also used for hyperpoliteness (a speech level above Sasak's "high" level), especially by the upper class known as themènak.[12]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | tɕ | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | dʑ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Rhotic | ɾ~r | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||
Eight vowels appear in Sasak dialects,[15] contrasting with each other differently by dialect.[15] They are represented in Latin orthography by⟨a⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩ and⟨u⟩, with diacritics sometimes used to distinguish conflated sounds.[15][16] The usual Indonesian practice is to use⟨e⟩ for theschwa,⟨é⟩ for theclose-mid front vowel,⟨è⟩ for theopen-mid front vowel,⟨ó⟩ for theclose-mid back vowel and⟨ò⟩ for theopen-mid back vowel.[16]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Sasak has thediphthongs (two vowels combined in the same syllable)/ae/,/ai/,/au/,/ia/,/uə/ and/oe/.[17]
Sasak words have a single stress on the final syllable.[18] Final/a/ in Sasakroots change phonetically to atense[ə] (mid central vowel); for example,/baca/ ('to read') will be realized (and spelled) asbace, but when affixed the vowel stays the same, as inbacaan, 'reading' andpembacaan, 'reading instrument'.[19] Incompounding, if the first element ends in a vowel, the element will take a nasal linker (/n/ in most dialects,/ŋ/ in some). For example, compoundingmate ('eye') andbulu ('hair') will result inmaten bulu ('eyelash').[18]
Sasak has a flexibleword order, typical ofwestern Indonesian languages.[20] Frequency distributions of the various word orders are influenced by the verb forms in the clause (i.e. whether the clause involves a nasal or an unmarked verb, see#Verbs).[20] Clauses involving the nasal verb form are predominantlysubject-verb-object (SVO), similar toactor-focus classes in other western Indonesian languages.[20] In contrast, clauses with an unmarked verb form do not have a dominant word order; three of the six possible orders (subject-verb-object,verb-subject-object andobject-verb-subject) occur with roughly-equal frequency.[21]
Verbs, like those of other western Indonesian languages, are not conjugated fortense,mood oraspect. Allaffixes arederivational.[22] Verbs may appear in two forms: unmarked (also known as basic or oral) and nasal.[23][16] The basic form appears in vocabulary lists and dictionaries,[16] and the nasal form adds the nasal prefixn-.[23] The nasal prefix, which also appears asnge-,m- and other forms, may delete the first consonant of the basic form.[23][24] For example, the unmarked form of 'to buy' isbeli and the nasal form ismbeli.[24] The nasal prefix can also turn a noun into the corresponding verb; for example,kupi ('coffee') becomesngupi ('to drink coffee').[22] The function of the prefix and nasal derivations from the basic form differ by dialect.[25] For example, eastern dialects of Sasak have three types of nasalization: the first marks transitive verbs, the second is used forpredicate focus, and the third is for adurative action with a non-specificpatient.[26]Imperative andhortative sentences use the basic form.[16]
Sasak has a variety ofclitics, agrammatical unit pronounced as part of a word (like an affix) but a separate word syntactically—similar to theEnglish language clitic'll.[27]Simple clitics occur in ademonstrativespecifier attached to a previous noun ornoun phrase; for example,ni ('this') indengan ni ('this person').[28][29]Special clitics occur with noun hosts to encodeinalienable possession, and with other hosts to encodeagents andpatients.[29] For example, the possessive cliticku (orkò ork, depending on dialect)—which means 'my' and corresponds to the pronounaku ('I')—can attach to the nounime ('hand') forimengku ('my hand').[19]
Sasak has significant regional variations, including byphonology,vocabulary andgrammar.[6] Native speakers recognize five labelled dialects, named for how "like that" and "like this" are pronounced: Kutó-Kuté (predominant in North Sasak), Nggetó-Nggeté (Northeast Sasak), Menó-Mené (Central Sasak), Ngenó-Ngené (Central East Sasak, Central West Sasak) and Meriaq-Meriku (Central South Sasak).[1][3] However, linguistPeter K. Austin said that the five labels do not "reflect fully the extensive geographical variation ... found within Sasak" in many linguistic areas.[1] Some dialects have a lowmutual intelligibility.[3]
Sasak has a system ofspeech levels in which different words are used, depending on the social level of the addressee relative to the speaker.[1] The system is similar to that ofBalinese andJavanese (languages spoken on neighbouring islands)[6] andKorean.[30] There are three levels in Sasak for the status of the addressee (low, mid- and high),[1] and a humble-honorific dimension which notes the relationship between the speaker and another referent.[31] For example, 'you' may be expressed askamu (low-level),side (mid-),pelinggih (high) ordekaji (honorific).[32] 'To eat' ismangan (low),bekelór (mid-),madaran (high) ormajengan (honorific).[32]
All forms except low are known asalus ('smooth' or 'polite') in Sasak.[6] They are used in formal contexts and with social superiors, especially in situations involvingmènak (the traditional upper caste, which makes up eight percent of the population).[6] The system is observed in regional varieties of the language. Although low-level terms have large regional variations, non-low forms are consistent in all varieties.[32] According to Indonesian languages specialistBernd Nothofer, the system is borrowed from Balinese or Javanese.[12]
The Sasak have a tradition of writing on dried leaves of thelontar palm.[12] The Javanese Hindu-BuddhistMajapahit empire, whose sphere of influence included Lombok, probably introduced literacy to the island during the fourteenth century.[33] The oldest surviving lontar texts date to the nineteenth century; many were collected by the Dutch and kept in libraries inLeiden orBali.[12] The Mataram Museum in Lombok also has a collection, and many individuals and families on the island keep them asheirlooms to be passed from generation to generation.[12]
The lontar texts are still read today in performances known aspepaòsan.[34] Readings are made for a number of occasions, including funerals, weddings andcircumcision ceremonies.[34] Rural Sasak read the lontar texts as part of a ritual to ensure the fertility of their farm animals.[34] Peter K. Austin described apepaòsan which was performed as part of a circumcision ceremony in 2002,[35] with paper copies of lontar texts rather than palm leaves.[36]
Lombok's lontar texts are written in Sasak,Kawi (a literary language based on old Javanese) or a combination of the two.[13] They are written inhanacaraka, a script nearly identical toBalinese.[13] Its basic letters consist of a consonant plus the vowela.[13] The first five letters readha,na,ca,ra andka, giving the script its name.[13] Syllables with vowels other thana use the basic letter plusdiacritics above, below or around it.[13] Final consonants of a syllable or consonant clusters may also be encoded.[13] This writing system is also namedSasak script.[37]
| International | |
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| National | |
